I completed the 10 INE vol2 labs a few days ago for the second time. I wont make this a long whining post, only a short simple whining post. These workbooks are riddled with an extraordinary amount of mistakes. It is really unforgivable that BrianM makes a comment on the forum “Hope you weren’t banging your head against this one too hard. The task should read level-2″. Two years later the task still reads Level-1. A simple change of a value from 1 to 2. Come on? Eventually, you loose faith in the workbook. I would suggest making notes of dodgy questions during the first round and using the SG. On the second round things went a bit smoother since I knew which questions broke the lab. Normally I would not suggest using the Solution Guide as figuring out the answers without the sg is the optimal learning method.
In summary, 1 or 2 good labs, 5 out of the 10 labs are completely broken, all labs are rough around the edges and all labs have some brief moments of brilliance.
Vol2 contain 5 labs, but I would add IPX vol3 lab 5 into this group as well, as it is clearly written by the same author. Vol3 Lab5 also use the same topology as Vol2 which is not supplied by IPX. You will have to create the SP topology .net file or download it from the blog when I get around to considering it blog worthy. All the labs are possible on dynamips.
I had very high expectations of the IPX vol2 labs after reading two blog posts claiming they were the “best”. For this reason I planned to do these labs last. The logic behind doing them last is that the “best” labs deserved my thorough understanding and concentration. I did not want to miss any vital information. The term “best” needs to be put into perspective and due to its high reputation this review will go into more detail.
If I had to compare cabbage, broccoli and spinach, I might tell you cabbage is the best. What I’m actually saying is that the cabbage is better than the broccoli and spinach. The same principle applies to the IPX vol2 SP labs. I have been using three sets of full scale labs. INE vol2, IPX vol3 and vol2. Of the bunch, the IPX vol2 could be considered by some as the better labs. I think they would say this due to the multiple Service provider CSC over Inter-AS topologies. This is great practice for sure. The problem is that you have to dig your way through a kilo of broccoli before getting a bite of steak. I consider these labs a configuration marathon. Each protocol requires neighbors to be authenticated. After the first lab or two it becomes a joke. Skipping these cause the next problem that preconfiguration have the authentication preconfigured on some devices. So again you are forced to go back and enable it. I think the word “all” is used way to loosely in these labs. Configuring all routers for a specific question is unnecessary and trying to figure out shortcuts wastes time. This generally cause the configuration marathon phenomena. For this reason I have labeled these labs as a health risk, as you run a high risk of developing Carpal tunnel syndrome. The “all routers”, “all neighbors” and “all interfaces” questions should really be contained to the devices that require them, or where they make sense. This reminds me of when a coach runs out of creative exercises and says: ” Ok guys, run around the track a hundred times”. If these questions are narrowed down to the devices that need them more questions that add value could be added e.g. multicast sections on both Lab5’s.
In all honesty and without a doubt, the complex inter service provider topologies are great practice. The questions that require many “stand alone” features to be configured is also a welcome addition. Therefore I can imagine that they are considered the best of the lot. With a little bit of tweaking with the end user in mind, I think these labs have the potential to truly become vital to the SP lab prep. All in all I will come back and redo these before the lab.
Update: Review 2
Besides not making any new posts for more than a month the blog has been offline for more than a week as well. Luckily it did come back online, eventually. My last post was at 80 days out, today was 38 days to go. Since then I completed INE Vol2 and started IPX vol2. I hope to finish IPX vol2 lab4 and 5 this weekend and then go back to the lab I skipped IPX vol3 lab5. That will conclude round one. I will then go back and redo the INE vol2 and IPX vol2 for the second time. I am far from lab ready and time flies at an incredible pace. I hope to really nail the labs in the remaining 5 weeks.
